3: Narwhal news
Hello!
Last week we came together and shared ideas, knowledge, and brought intelligence from different sectors and new perspectives. A quote from someone on the call was
"I feel like my head is literally going to explode".
This newsletter covers a lot of detail. If you only have 5 minutes just read this top section, if you have longer you can scroll down and read the entire thing.
Round up from our last call
We have synthesised the call notes into a report here.
You can watch the recording of the call shared privately to your email addresses via YouTube.
First steps towards key topics and themes for this group to focus on.
Jon Cracknell created a map (also see attached) and #opposition_narratives Slack channel
Jon Alexander published an article and #covid_govt_messaging Slack channel - more on both below.
Digest
Newsletter: Find our fortnightly digest linked or in the PDF attached. Your suggestions for articles or notifications about what you are writing get incorporated here each week.
Actions
Zoom sign up link: Mark your calendar for the next Narwhal pod call at 4pm Thursday 21st May and sign up using the link - sign up here
Slack sign up link: Join our Slack workspace, introduce yourself in #introductions, and join the thematic channels
Slack orientation: New to Slack? Join a 30 minute onboarding on Monday 18th May
General reminders
Register your details: Please fill this out with your details if you haven’t already to allow sharing amongst the group. You can also use this for any new members you would like to suggest.
Add all group calls to your diary using this Google calendar link
Contributions from pod members
These are contributions that have emerged from our last call:
Jon Cracknell has created a V1 MVP of a mapof COVID-19 opposition narratives and messages that he'd like feedback on. See map and join #opposition_narratives in Slack to discuss next steps
Jon Alexander published an article after our last call - now on 600,000 views - on the government’s recent framing around COVID-19. See article and Tweet and join #covid_govt_messaging to discuss next steps
Orientation
This is a round-up from the past 2 weeks of narratives, meta-narratives, metaphors, strategic communication in COVID-19. There have been 2 calls:
1. Moral imagining the present from the future
2. COVID-19 metaphors, images, language hive-mind
3. Next Thursday at 4pm we have our 3rd call - sign up here.
This NARWHAL pod (Narratives Working group Hopeful and Longterm) are a group supported by Unbound Philanthropy and Migration Exchange, convened to use the NARWHAL methodology explore and develop narratives that could lead us to plural, healthy, just futures.
There will be 4 more structured NARWHAL pod calls over the next two months, within the context of other Unbound programming. The project is running over 3 months, to deploy a wide range of approaches, disciplines and methodologies (initially conceived as a demonstration of moral imaginations, warm data and microsolidarity approaches) for the development and actioning of narratives that support a ‘Larger Us’ frame.
Highlights from the digest
The digest is a fortnightly round-up of our top reads, articles that are influencing our thinking,and showcasing of our members work. Read the
Highlights:
Event next week: Tuesday 19 May at 4pm (GMT+1) for Global Green New Deal: Into the Portal, Leave No One Behind with Naomi Klein and Arundhati Roy
Black Skin, White Masks: Racism, Vulnerability & Refuting Black Pathology - Transcript from a powerful webinar by Ruha Benjamin
Opinion | Think This Pandemic Is Bad? We Have Another Crisis Coming by Rhiana Gunn-Wright
The Coronavirus is Rewriting our Imaginations - excellent article by science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson
The Pandemic Doesn't Have to Be This Confusing - superb article by Ed Yong on The Atlantic
From our group members:
Reframing Migration Narratives Toolkit - a toolkit developed by International Centre for Policy Advocacy in Berlin where Sarah Lyall works. “We support European activists to reframe and rebalance the migration debate towards positive narratives which promote diversity and inclusion. We developed this toolkit on the practical application of framing approaches.
The Emerging Narratives of a Post-COVID World - super response to the post-COVID narrative landscape by Alina Siegfried
Johnson's message is very deliberate and very dangerous: here's how to combat it - brilliant article in response to the UK government’s recent messaging - going viral by Jon Alexander
Report from Collective Psychology Project - This Too Shall Pass - new report out by Alex Evans, Casper ter Kuile, Ivor Williams, referenced in our last call and exploring many deep meta-narrative topics of grief, time, care.
Amy Leach and the ODI’s Human Mobility Initiative shared work to track reforms, initiative and campaigns relating to migrant key workers across the globe and have worked with a fantastic designer, Federica Fragapane to turn this into a data viz. The data viz uses the analogy of trees to group examples by geography, with branches denoting sectors, and fruit individual stories and examples. We’ll be adding to the data viz on a weekly basis so the trees will continue to grow!
Poacher Turned Gamekeeper - blog from Marc Winn, with pearls of wisdom as usual. “As an activist and changemaker, over the years, I have learnt how resistant to persuasion people are, and how readily they will cognitively dismiss new ways of doing things, or new frames of view. Especially when they are wary of the person suggesting it.”
Data governance norms
A key goal within the SG3 group is to nurture the conditions for trusted communication and sharing. As such, all recordings and documents have been shared only with the emails you provided on signing up. Please refrain from sharing these beyond the group. We will be expressly asking for contributors to opt-in around specific group artefacts that we intend for wider sharing.